Asus EEE PC

[heretic]

I am toying with buying the 4gb 7" screen model. Anyone have any experience of one?

[Dop]

Mine arrived this week, I'd had to wait about a month for delivery.

The criticism I have is that the wireless networking drivers installed were useless and failed to work with my network (I'm using an Apple Airport Express as a wireless hub) as apparently they don't properly support WPA security. The solution to that was to install new drivers as shown here (http://wiki.eeeuser.com/wpa_default_xandros).
That got me on my network easy as pie.

I do find it possible to type reasonably well on the keyboard with just the odd mis-keying, and this will get better as I get used to it.

Battery life is a bit short (3 hours with the wi-fi off, 2 and a bit with it on), but there are extended life batteries coming on the market which will extend that (I've heard as long as 7 hours).
Because the battery just clips on the back it would be easy to carry an extra battery for long journeys.

[ORAC]

I thought about it but didn't like the smal screen - so I bought myself a Mac Air book instead.... :p

[Spitoon]

Been thinking about one of these myself.

There's an 8G on the way with a bigger screen - slightly bigger overall apparently but same size keyboard if I understand correctly. Don't know whether this takes it nearer the small laptop size and thus does away with some of the benefits. Also I see that some now come with Windows - again eating into the benefits that it offers! Haven't seen any expected prices for the 8G yet but one website suggested that it would be available in June.

Dop, one question on the battery power - what exactly are they? Is it a container for some conventional AAs or similar or is it a rechargeable pack? And does it come with a mains adapter?

[Wee Weasley Welshman]

I had one at launch in black. Its OK. Sold it and bought an iPhone instead. I find I use it a heck of a lot more in a lot more situation than I would have the EEE. As the iPhone is now only £169 (£100 drop today) its even more of a no brainer. If you need to type a lot though its still hellish small and hellish good at doing that.

WWW

[airborne_artist]

Info (http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/04/16/asus_launches_eee_900/) on the new version.

The 900 is based around an 8.9in, 1024 x 600 display. It'll contain 1GB of DDR 2 memory and a choice of 12GB or 20GB of solid-state storage, depending on which operating system you opt for. Both capacities are configured as two partitions: one 4GB space and either 8GB or 16GB.

The 20GB model will come with Linux, Asus said, while the 12GB version will be pre-loaded with Windows XP Home Edition.


Connectivity comes courtesy of 802.11b/g Wi-Fi and a 10/100Mb/s Ethernet port. The 900 has three USB ports, a VGA connector and the same audio jacks found on the Eee PC 701. Like the older model, the 900 has a 1.3-megapixel webcam.


The laptop gained a little size and weight: it's now 22.5 x 17 x 2-3.38cm and 990g. The 701 is 22.5 x 16.5 x 2.5-3.5cm and 890g, so there's not much in it.

[Feline]

Had my 4G Surf for a while now - but haven't really had a lot of time to play with it yet.
It comes with a most impressive installed collection of software (I did have time to put together a list):

1. Internet
1.1 Web Mail
1.1.1 Gmail
1.1.2 Hotmail
1.1.3 Yahoo
1.1.4 AOL
1.2 Web
1.2.1 Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.9
1.3 iGoogle
1.4 Messenger
1.4.1 Pidgin
1.5 Skype
1.6 Network
1.7 Google Docs
1.8 World Clock
1.8.1 KDE World Clock
1.9 Wikipedia
1.10 Internet Radio
1.11 Wireless Networks
2. Work
2.1 Accessories
2.1.1 Calculator
2.1.2 PIM
2.1.3 Screen Capture
2.2 Documents
2.2.1 Open Office.org 2.0
2.3 Spreadsheets
2.3.1 Open Office.org 2.0
2.4 Presentations
2.4.1 Open Office.org 2.0
2.5 PDF Reader
2.5.1 Adobe Reader 7.0
2.6 Mail
2.6.1 Mozilla Thunderbird 2.0.0.9
2.7 File Manager
2.8 Dictionary
2.8.1 Longman Dictionary
2.9 Notes
3. Learn
3.1 Science
3.1.1 Periodic Table
3.1.2 Planetarium
3.2 Language
3.2.1 Typing
3.2.2 Letter Game
3.2.3 Hangman Game
3.3 Math
3.3.1 Fraction Tutorial
3.3.2 TuxMath
3.3.3 Geometry
3.3.4 Function Plotter
3.4 Paint
3.4.1 Paint
3.4.2 Tux Paint3
3.5 Web Learn
4. Play
4.1 Games
4.1.1 Solitaire
4.1.2 Frozen Bubble
4.1.3 Crack Attack
4.1.4 Penguin Racer
4.1.5 Sudoku
4.1.6 Potato Guy
4.1.7 L Tris
4.2 Media Player
4.3 Music Manager
4.4 Photo Manager
4.5 Video Manager
4.6 Sound Recorder
5. Settings
5.1 Desktop Mode
5.2 Anti-virus
5.3 Volume
5.4 Instant
5.4.1 Task Manager
5.4.2 Standby
5.4.3 Restart
5.4.4 Shutdown
5.5 Printers
5.6 System Info
5.7 Date & Time
5.8 Personalisation
5.9 Add/Remove Software
5.10 Touchpad
5.11 Disk Utility
5.12 Diagnostic Tools
5.12.1 System Info
5.12.2 System Test
5.12.3 Contact Us
5.13 Voice Command
6. Favourites
6.1 Asus.com
6.2 Customize

Plugged in a Logitech USB mouse - no problem; Plugged in an HP Laserjet 1010 - No problem (in fact, much easier than installing the HP 1010 on a windows system where you must install the (cr*p) HP installation S/W).

To answer your question Spitoon - it uses an proprietary Li-Ion battery pack rated at 7.4 volts 4400 mAh which slips onto the back of the system unit (just like most any laptop). The charger gives an output of 9.5 volts / 2.315 amps - has a slip on adapter for local 3 pin mains plug (ie. not the usual irritating wonky 2-pin euro plug).

I will hang on to it until the bigger screen version comes along and then present the 4G to my son and acquire the new one!

On the whole :ok::ok::ok:

[twiggs]

My wife loves her EeePC, it is the 4GB model.
We opted to upgrade to 1GB of RAM which is the maximum.
The power cable is the same size as a phone charger and with the inbuilt camera, the accessories load is a lot lighter than with her old notebook.
I have tweaked it a bit and enabled the full desktop mode in Xandros.
She is happy with the basic mode though.
The monitor is too small for me but if I need to use it, I can connect it to another monitor or the LCD TV.
I saw the 8GB model in the store yesterday and it has the same physical dimensions except it comes with 1GB RAM as standard (max 2GB)
There is plenty of useful info on the EeeUser.com (http://www.eeeuser.com/) website and forum which, amongst other things, has plenty of help for installing XP on it.
I haven't found the need to install XP as Xandros is catering for our needs just fine.